WOOLWICH TWP. — The Kingsway Regional High School baseball team had to wait more than a week to start its season thanks to a senior trip and weather postponements, and when it finally took the field Wednesday to face Tri-County Conference Royal Division foe Delsea it found flamethrowing senior Bryan Dobzanski on the mound.

The Dragons countered with their “crafty lefty,” senior Jason Phillips. He didn’t blow anybody away like Dobzanski spent much of the afternoon doing, but he matched zero for zero, and that ultimately gave his team a chance to win.

A one-out two-base throwing error in the bottom of the eighth followed by a perfectly-placed bunt single set up leadoff hitter Matt Lesyk, whose hard grounder to short against a drawn-in infield resulted in a single and the lone run of the game sliding across home to give Kingsway a 1-0 victory over the Crusaders.

“When (Matt) Helmandollar ... (took) second on the overthrow, I knew that was our chance,” said Lesyk, whose hit was just the third of the game for the Dragons. “Then when Hoagie (Garrett Hoagland) laid that bunt down ... I knew I just had to put the ball in play and we were going to come out on top.”

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The Crusaders combo of Dobzanski and Eli Helsel kept Kingsway (1-0 overall, 1-0 in the Royal) hitless until the seventh, when Jason West lined a ball to left-center with two outs but was thrown out by left fielder Matt Birmingham trying to stretch the single into a double.

Dobzanski, a University of Louisville commit, was making his first start of the season and was only scheduled to throw about 60-65 pitches. He wound up with 73 in five innings, striking out 11 without a walk with 51 strikes. He threw first-pitch strikes to all but three batters with a curveball and a fastball that touched 95 miles per hour and never dipped below 90 in front of at least half a dozen scouts.

“All eyes on me, it just makes me perform a lot better because I’m used to pressure like that,” Dobzanski said. “When I’m pitching I don’t think about it at all, I don’t think about the scouts back there. (But) it makes you feel like you’re that good of a player, you’re at that level and they want you. You have to live up to it and just pitch as best you can.”

“Any time you go up against an all-star pitcher, it’s an honor,” said Phillips, a three-year starter. “Even though you’re not (the same type pitcher), you just go out there and do what you have to do. I can’t just look at myself, (the defense was) a (heck) of a big factor in this game.”

Phillips went seven innings on just 84 pitches, giving up two hits, a walk and a hit batter with five strikeouts. Ryan Lee got the win in relief, pitching a scoreless eighth. Quinn Collins singled and walked for the Crusaders (1-2, 1-2), but was stranded at second base both times.

Most importantly for the Dragons, who reached the South Jersey Group III semifinals last season after a dreadful beginning, they got their season off to the right start to hopefully fulfill their big aspirations.

“When you’ve got games that go like that, they’re a lot of fun to be a part of because there’s no down time,” coach Ian Enders said. “It keeps the kids in the game. Kudos to both guys. ... That’s what we said, goal No. 1, to win the conference. We feel like we have the crew to do it.”

“It’s a big win, last year we started off with eight losses in a row,” said Lesyk. “To come out on top like that ... it makes us feel (confident) for the rest of the season.”